Communication networks, such as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), for transporting electrical representations of audible sounds from one location to another are well known. Additionally, packet switched networks, such as the Internet, are able to perform a similar function by transporting packets containing data that represents audible sounds from one location to another. The audible sounds are encoded into digital data and placed into packets at the origination point and transmitted across the packet switched network. At the destination point, the digital data is extracted from the packets and decoded into audible sounds.
In a communication network, it is desirable to provide conference arrangements whereby many participants can be bridged together on a conference call. A conference bridge is a device or system that allows several connection endpoints to be connected together to establish a communications conference. Modern conference bridges can accommodate both voice and video data, thereby allowing, for example, collaboration on documents by conference participants.
In a conference call, the audible sounds received at a device, usually a telephone, are distributed to all of the other devices participating in the conference call. Thus, each participant in the conference call may share information with all of the other participants.
Unfortunately, during a conference call, it may be difficult for a participant to determine who is speaking unless he/she is familiar with the voices of all other participants. Furthermore, the “rank” of the person speaking may be even more difficult to establish unless a listener knows all positions held by all of the other participants.
There have been attempts to correct the problem of identifying speakers during a conference call. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,853,716 to Shaffer et al., which is herein incorporated by this reference, a system and method are described that identifies a speaking participant during a conference call by analyzing his/her voice characteristics. Once the speaking participant is identified, his/her information is determined and displayed to all other participants of the conference call who are receiving the voice signal. This is particularly useful when more than one participant is using one endpoint (telephone). However, this architecture fails to provide the relative rankings of the various participants on an absolute basis. Although titles of each participant are displayed, the meaning of the title is often unknown to the other participants. For example, different cultures use different titles for the same position or the same titles for different positions.
In very formal societies like Japan and Korea, it is necessary to know the rank of a person before addressing him/her as a different form of formal address is used depending upon the rank and possibly age of the person. Even in English speaking countries the knowledge of another person's rank can be important as very distinct persons are addressed formally. Addressing someone before his/her ranking is known may lead to an unintentional insult of the person being addressed.
Furthermore, the importance of a directive/information is often related to the rank of the person delivering the directive/information. In military applications, where rank is of the utmost importance, an order given by a general needs to be addressed differently than an order given by a corporal. Like most business entities, the military is driven by the chain of command. Other participants of the conference need to know exactly who gave the order and what his/her ranking is relative to them. Particularly because an individual ranking just under the general, say a colonel or major, will need to pass the order received from the general down to lower ranking subordinates. Other generals that are participating on the conference may not need to pass the order on to their subordinates. Likewise, an order given by a sergeant is typically not directed toward individuals ranking higher than the sergeant. Without knowing the hierarchical position of the speaker, listeners may not now how to handle certain instructions.